This report summarizes the findings of a February 1971 administration of a revised and expanded version of the Wisconsin Basic Prereading Skill Test to 138 kindergartners. The test battery being developed has two purposes: (a) the identification of prereading skill deficits in kindergartners for individualized curriculum planning, and (b) the…

This report, Vol. II of three interpretive manuscripts, presents Information For The Teacher, a review of literature on preschool reading instruction, along with suggestions and materials for teaching preschool reading. A skills checklist is provided and the educational television program, Sesame Street, is evaluated, since the effectiveness of…

Reading research in which different methods or materials have been compared has proven inconclusive. This paper is restricted to beginning reading, defined as the acquisition of letter-sound decoding ability, and raises the question: what skills are required by current tests? Available reading readiness and achievement tests consist of batteries…

The main purpose of this investigation was to study the relationships between visual memory and early reading achievement. Short term and intermediate memory were examined in relation to vocabulary, reading comprehension, and reading readiness in first grade pupils. The Gates MacGinitie Readiness Skills Test; the Visual Memory for Designs Tests,…

The purpose of this investigation was to study the effect of controlling the letters used in words both for a training program designed to improve visual discrimination and for a word recognition task. The experiment was designed to investigate the influence of simultaneous and successive discrimination learning with stimuli which varied in…

The effect of mastery of three prereading skills (letter order, letter orientation, and word detail) on first-grade reading achievement was investigated in a study of 1068 students from 42 randomly selected classrooms; 687 students completed all instruments and could be included in analyses of results. Systematic instruction was given to 16…

Investigated three aspects of children's early language knowledge: (1) comparison of preschoolers response to written stimuli in familiar environmental contexts (on signs and billboards) with responses presented in a traditional reading task format; (2) developmental changes in preschoolers' knowledge of written language; and (3) preschoolers'…

Evaluates the effectiveness of two dissimilar programs, SAPA and the First Talking Alphabet (FTA), upon the acquisition of reading readiness skills of kindergarten pupils. Compares the effects of four different programs (SAPA, FTA, an informal language development program, and a control) on the reading readiness of kindergarten pupils. (GA)

Discusses some of the common explanations for the effects of story reading at home upon children's later reading achievement, and offers an alternative explanation along with implications for classroom practices. (CM)

The author discusses the processes by which children learn to read and how the natural sequence of learning may be used to improve reading instruction. (JD)

Research with kindergarten children showed that low imagery words were more difficult to recall than high imagery words. (MKM)

A survey of the current status of 25 reading readiness tests provides a summary of tests devised or updated over the last 10 years as reviewed in O.K. Buros "The Seventh Mental Measurements Yearbook" (1972), and a review of another six tests which have appeared since 1972. (IM)

Discusses the maturational, behaviorist and cognitive or psycholinguistic views of reading readiness. Describes a teaching strategy of "assisted reading," derived from the cognitive, psycholinguistic view. (BF)

Examples of the awareness of young children of printed information they have gained informally are used to demonstrate some of the important knowledge that children bring to beginning reading and writing. Teachers need to encourage exploratory reading and writing experiences. (Author/DB)